
More About Me
More about me
My interest in writing began as a student at Vassar College, where I majored in Science, Technology, & Society, and concentrated in Urban Studies. Vassar's rigorous classes helped me to develop my writing abilities. Upon graduation, I was hired through a grant recipient to write a legislative history on the War on Poverty Programs, allowing me to spend a year in libraries at Vassar and in Washington, DC, doing research and writing. Public speaking soon followed - I became an advocate for nonprofit agencies and lobbied legislators in the northeast. My interest in law led to my attending Fordham Law School in the evening, while working in law firms as a paralegal and law clerk during the day. I was invited to join the Law Review and a Wall Street law firm, (former) Dewey Ballantine, where I learned the skills of negotiation and contract drafting. A clerkship for a federal bankruptcy judge, (late) Hon. Tina Brozman, created a path to my joining a bankruptcy practice at the mid-town litigation firm of Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler.
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Although I enjoyed representing clients in law practice, I was drawn to the classroom and started teaching at Fordham University's undergraduate campus and The New School for Social Research - courses such as Women and the Law, Constitutional Law, and Law and Literature. The thrill of combining law and teaching led to a full-time faculty position at St. John's University School of Law, in 1994. Experiential learning is dynamic. I have been fortunate to teach a range of skills - legal writing, research, contract drafting, negotiation, litigation document drafting, oral advocacy, scholarly writing - as well as the doctrine of contracts. My scholarship followed suit. The late Dr. Rita Dunn and I were the first to empirically study the learning styles of law students. Graduate students at SJU and I conducted several empirical studies on different teaching methods and learning styles. Over time, my interest in pedagogy branched out to teaching contract drafting using creativity, quizzing students repetitively to foster deeper retention, and flipping my classroom to allow experiential engagement. I presented and wrote about these pedagogical techniques in peer-reviewed journals.
Over decades, I developed many exercises to engage students in class, which evolved into my first book, Becoming a Legal Writer: A Workbook with Explanations to Develop Objective Legal Analysis and Writing Skills, with Christine Coughlin & Sandy Patrick (Carolina Academic Press 2019); second edition (forthcoming 2025). To follow the objective workbook, Prof. Laura Graham and I wrote a persuasive writing workbook, Persuasive Advocacy in Action: A Workbook for Law Students, with Laura Graham (forthcoming Carolina Academic Press 2024). I transformed lessons learned from transactional practice and decades of teaching the subject into Teaching Contract Drafting, appearing in the Elgar Guides to Teaching series (Edward Elgar 2023).
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In the 1990s, I was introduced to an attorney, Herb Rosedale, Esq., a renowned expert in legal matters involving cults. I had previously experienced coercive measures used in political groups. He invited me to be the featured luncheon speaker at a conference held by the predecessor to what is now the International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA). I presented on current laws that could be used to aid cult survivors and their families. Since then, I have continued to present at ICSA conferences in the US and abroad, and in other forums. I have also published numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals on legal theory and remedies regarding cults. On the topic of human trafficking, I have presented before charity organizations, church forums, student groups, high school assemblies, and academic conferences. My parenting book incorporates my research and interviews: Taken No More: Protecting Your Children Against Traffickers and Cults (forthcoming Bloomsbury 2025).
I am currently enrolled in the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing at Adelphi University. In addition, I am teaching the Art and Craft of Writing, which is a freshman English course. I engage students to read critically, think analytically, and write clearly and concisely.
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My husband, Paul Skip Laisure, is a criminal defense attorney who has provided much helpful advice and critique of my articles, book chapters, essays, and books. We live on Long Island, NY. Our grown children, Andrea and Corey, have their individual career pursuits, but they have influenced various parts of my writing.
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